Slip into my thoughts and do watch your step

Daily Archives: August 22, 2012

Did you ever wonder what A Life Less Hackneyed looks like in Gallifreyan? Well, now you do. The crazy-ass things I find on the Internet, huh? What’s next? We’ll have to wait and see, won’t we?

Anywhere, where was I? Oh, yeah: stories and ideas. They are still there, rumbling about in my head. That’s not always a good idea, because, before you know it, I’m trying to do something with it.

The last couple of days I’ve run the story idea I wrote about yesterday around again and again. I’m about this close to getting it into Scrivener, because there are things I need to keep straight about how one gets from place to place in the galaxy of the 28th Century.

This is world building time, and though I don’t want to get distracted from other things I’m doing–I have one story I need to finish, and I was given an idea for one to write in October, and there’s that looming hell-bound train known as NaNoWriMo to tackle . . .

But this is one of those ideas that’s just hanging with me. I can’t say why, but it’s there. Probably because the story is a bit challenging. It’s one of those science fiction ideas that’s been done before, but I like the idea of bringing it into my world, into something that could be real.

I love world building, and getting everything done for this one is nice. I will admit, I’m nicking a few ideas here and there from other sources, but it’s not so much the tech and the sci-fiey things (is “sci-fiey” a word? It is now), as it is the characters and the story.

However . . .

As I’ve stated from time to time, I like to have most everything thought out before I start writing. I’m rarely one for sitting down and just going for it, because the characters don’t tell me jack. I’m thinking through the plot, such as it is, and there’s a point where something just doesn’t make that much sense.

Now, I think is have the situation worked out; I feel that I have a reason for why one of the people in the story does what they do, but there was a moment when I was thinking out the story that I thought, “Wait . . . hasn’t this been done already? And better?”

I won’t say what the “has been done already” was, because to do so will give something away. It would also have geeks going, “You loser! You’re doing that?” So I had to change things around. Just a little, but enough that it worried me.

Over lunch I figured it out. I actually had it figured out before that, but lunch finalized it. That’s me rolling like a writer again; I can finalize something over a cup of coffee and a burrito. All hail my writing coolness–said phrase which I’ve also translated into Gallifreyan right over there . . . –>

It’s easy to do something that’s been done before, and not realize you’re treading over worn ground until you’re half-way through the muck. I guess I’m used to the way Australians used to clear minefields during WWI: they’d drive a flock of sheep into the area, let them blow up, and follow the cleared path.

A story line can be as treacherous as a minefield, and you want to clear that sucker as much as possible before you head across. Face it: it’s either you or the sheep–

Wouldn’t you rather you not be the one getting blown to hell when you’re half way across?

What Has Gone Before

Check the Past by Date

It’s been a while since I’ve spoken with you. Perhaps speak isn’t the correct way to put things, but it works for me. In a way, I am speaking to you: I’m dictating this with Dragon software. It seems in the past couple of days Dragon has learned my idiosyncrasies far better than before, and […]